Friday Round-Up

Each week I round-up all the (mostly book-related) articles/blog posts/book reviews/websites/videos that entertained me during the week. Enjoy!

 

In the words of Book Riot (where I found this photo), it's 5 o'clock somewhere.

Articles

"In the Land of the Non-Reader" - a man spends several weeks as a non-reader and this article talks about why and what he learned.

Flavorwire article of the week: "15 Great Works of Literature-Inspired Nail Art" - just to prove there really IS something out there for everyone.

Second Flavorwire article of the week: "10 Cult Literary Traditions for Truly Die-Hard Fans"

Okay, okay, THIRD Flavorwire article of the week: "10 Legendary Bad Girls of Literature" (I had to include it, especially as I think they did a much better job on this list than the previous 10 Legendary Bad Boys of Literature).

"Some of my worst friends are books" from The Guardian. Some of my best friends are, too, though I also enjoy people IRL.

"Nine Coolest Literary Siblings"

"The Business Case for Reading" in the Harvard Business Review

Blogs

The Penguin Press (where I found the typewriter poster on the right, entitled "Typewriters and the Men Who Love Them")

Bookstores

The Last Bookstore, LA, CA.

I have never been to this bookstore, but if I ever find myself spending time in LA (doubtful), you can bet this will be my first stop. This is the article that got me interested. The sentences that sold it for me?

"The Last Bookstore lets you hold a new or used book in your hands in a chic-vintage, one-of-a-kind interior. The store is decorated with things like elephant tusks and mannequins. Even when you go to the checkout, you will see that the counter is made up of books. It’s like an Amoeba Records meets Best Buy meets Borders meets Goodwill, decorated by someone’s hipster sister."

How could you not want to go see a store like that?

"25 Things I Learned From Opening a Bookstore"

Book-to-Screen

The filming of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is back on! Thanks to EarlyWord for this info:

Kate Winslet is set to star as WWII magazine columnist, Juliet Ashton in the film version of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Random House, 2008). Kenneth Branagh will direct (and, some speculate, star as Dawsey Adams). Filming is to begin in March.
Back in November, Variety reported that Branagh had abandoned Guernsey for an adaptation of Italian Shoes by Henning Mankell (New Press, 2009), starring Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins. That project appears to now be on the back burner.

Children's Books

Dr. Seuss was almost never published! But a chance street encounter led to the fateful publication of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. NPR relates "How Dr. Seuss Got His Start 'On Mulberry Street'".

Want to know what district you'd live in, if you were in Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games? Check out this map of Panem. I'd be living in the Wilderness which I'm pretty happy about.

Watch this RIGHT NOW (Colbert interviews Maurice Sendak. Hilarity ensues.).

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Libraries

The Huffington Post's Arts section presents a photo montage of Eric Fonteneau's "Haunting Library Installation"

"20 Heroic Librarians Who Save the World" - and yes, I've seen all THREE The Librarian films (though whether I'm proud or ashamed of that, I haven't figured out yet). Also, you must read that Garth Nix series if you haven't already. Lastly, HUGE crush on Giles, even though I'm not a Buffy fan.

Quizzes

Can you name these popular children's book characters?

Tattoos

"The 5 Books That Inspire the Most Tattoos" (though I would hasten a guess that the movie "Fight Club" has more to do with the tattoos than the book does).

Friday Round-Up

Each week I round-up all the (mostly book-related) articles/blog posts/book reviews/websites/videos that entertained me during the week. Enjoy!

Articles

Gorgeous carved book landscapes by Guy Laramee.

Salvador Dali illustrates Alice in Wonderland.

Feeling both betrayed and excited: former librarian and independent bookstore advocate, Nancy Pearl, presents Book Lust Rediscoveries, a series published by Amazon.com (ew.).

Amazing idea of the week! Weller Books is doing a huge "book drop" around the city to advertise their grand re-opening. Read about it here.

Absolutely beautiful covers for the e-book versions of Michael Chabon's works by designer Connie Gabbert showcased on The Casual Optimist.

Obviously this travel bookcase is what I'll be taking on my next vacation. Ms. Crowe - is this how you do it?

"We all read in the Yellow Trolley Bus" in Bulgaria. This cool public library housed in an old trolley bus on a deserted city street is right up there with the Book Barge in the UK for its unique idea and brilliant execution.

Read this article about book landscaping.

Digital Rights Showdown! Harper Collins vs. Open Media

Blogs


Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves (with pictures!)

The PageTurn, the website/blog by HarperCollins's School and Library Marketing team.

Book Lists

Book Dirt offers "8 Famous People You Never Knew Wrote Mysteries". I know I'm putting Hugh Laurie's on my TBR.

Book-to-Screen

I'm in love with Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, the main character in the Raylan Givens series by Elmore Leonard, in the TV show Justified:



Children's Books

Cinder (a debut YA novel about Cinderella as a cyborg) author, Marissa Meyer, writes about reimagined fairy tales in "Twice Upon a Time in Hollywood"

Brain Pickings' article of the week: "Seven Nonfiction Children's Books Blending Whimsy and Education". My favorite is a tie between The First Book of Jazz by Langston Hughes and The Serif Fairy by Rene Siegfried.

Publisher's Weekly reports on Chicken House - the children's publishing company begun by the man who discovered JK Rowling's Harry Potter in the UK - expanding to the Netherlands in "Chicken House Goes Dutch".

Contests

It's that time again! (I say that like I've done this before. I haven't.) "It is time to announce the contestants, judges, and brackets for the original, one-and-only, full-combat, oddly-predictive-of-the-Pulitzer-Prize, eighth annual TMN Tournament of Books, coming March 2012, presented by Field Notes." Don't know what I'm talking about? Check it out here.

Libraries

Moment of silent appreciation for the Kansas City Public Library.

Teaching

"The Learning Network" at The New York Times has some fantastic suggestions for encouraging book discussions, particularly between multiple classrooms in "Reading With Strangers: Ways to Study Literature Collaboratively"

Videos



Despite the bizarre choice in music, this video is a cute montage of library scenes from movies and T.V. shows:

Book Blogger Hop!

It's that time again - the Book Blogger Hop presented by Crazy-for-Books.

As always, thanks to Presenting Lenore for turning me on to this great phenom.

This week's visits through the Book Blogger Hop were to:

Emily at Emily's Reading Room (where she's giving away a FREE bookcase, so stop by soon!)
Erika at Erika Breathes Books (where I discovered something called "Waiting on Wednesday" which led me to the next blog)
Jill at Breaking the Spine (who began "Waiting on Wednesday," an idea I'm going to have to use next Wednesday)

Check 'em out, and don't forget to visit the blogs from my last Book Blogger Hop post.

Book Blogger Hop!

Thank you to Presenting Lenore for turning me on to a phenomenon known as the Book Blogger Hop!

Through Presenting Lenore, I discovered Crazy-for-Books, who hosts this weekly event. Click on this link to sign up for this week's Book Blogger Hop.

What IS a BBH, you ask? Pretty much what it sounds like. If you have a blog that reviews books in some shape or form, and you want other people to read it (and come on, why else do you have a blog?), then you add your name to the BBH list. Other book bloggers add their names to the list as well. You check them out. They check you out. You meet some great new internet blogs & friends, and in turn, hope more people are turned on to the wisdom of your own posts.

You know, like, "I'll scratch your back, if you scratch mine."
Or maybe, "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours."

Something like that...so sign on!

Other book blogs I've discovered through the BBH include:

Persnickety Snark (a YA book review blog I actually found before and had neglected to bookmark!)
The Compulsive Reader (another YA book blog with a great title)
The Story Siren (a big book blog that awes me and inspires me to get more creative with my own)
Reading with Tequila (I confess, I checked it out because of the name, and then stayed for the reviews)
A Blog About Nothing (again, followed for the name, stayed for the reviews)
Book of Secrets (a blog that will tell me everything about my guilty pleasure reading)

Check 'em out!